CompuServe Messages

>>cave fly-by? No, a cave fly-THRU. There are at least a couple of us on this forum that have been sufficiently [enlightened] | [brain-damaged] to have the occasional habit of scuba diving in cave systems in Florida. (Kids, DON'T try this at home! – without proper training) Ever since starting this 3D hobby I've wanted a way to build a model of a cave system with all the interconnecting passageways that I could fly/swim thru. The blob modeler is perfect for this. I just strung together a series of spheres, then loaded the model into 3DS and inverted the normals. The biggest problem is detail – even with the blob detail set to the maximum, there were not nearly enough faces in the model to satisfy me. As I moved thru, many walls and turns were much to coarse and angular to be realistic. I will try making a cave in smaller sections, Yost Fractalizing them, and piecing them together. Applying materials to a branching structure like this is also challenging. Without mapping coordinates algorithmically applied, I think the best thing for me to try is one of the new natural material SXP's. BTW, I ran into one little thing when transferring blob meshes to 3DS – the coordinate systems between the two programs seem to be different, and models come into 3DS not only rotated, but mirrored. Not a problem, just a curiosity. >>compile with the DOS Extender… That would be great. One thing may be a problem for 3DS users though. The DOS version you have now works from the DOS shell within 3DS, making it efficient to shell out to refine a model, then exit back to 3DS to continue working. If going to a DOS Extender version would prohibit this from working, users with a single (non-networked) machine would have to exit 3DS completely to run Blob, which is a pain in the neck. The reason I mention this is that the DPS PAR software recently went from DOS only to Pharlap DOS extender and now won't run in the shell, an ability I miss. BTW, I did have one problem running the Blob/RAW23DS combo from the 3DS shell – after several refinements of a model 3DS suddenly locked up on me in the middle of a render. This has never happend to me before, so there may be some incompatiblity here anyway. (It also may be some problem with my specific system) I'll try to duplicate that also the next time I get to play.